Cost of ongoing bins dispute nears £10m

Published on Friday 7 January 2011 13:53

FEARS were raised today that the total cost of Edinburgh's long-running bin dispute is heading towards £10 million, after it emerged that more than £2m of savings were not achieved because of the ongoing wrangle.

&#149 The bin men's work to rule has seen rubbish piled high on the streets of the Capital

Officials in the city council's communities department, which includes bin men and street cleaners, have admitted that savings that had been earmarked for the present financial year are set to fall 2.3m short "mainly as a result of continuing issues with the refuse dispute".

It was revealed last March that the cost of private contractors brought in during the work-to-rule was then standing at 5.4m. Council leaders have not provided a figure for the total cost of the dispute - which has now been running for more than 18 months - since that figure was released

But Councillor Andrew Burns, leader of the Labour group on the city council, said: "It is a huge concern that we are now, unbelievably, coming close to this dispute being two years long. I find it astounding that the administration have not sought to resolve it in the proper manner and, as this report shows, it is costing the taxpayer many many millions of pounds.

"7m is a very significant sum of money and I suspect the true figure is much higher because we have not had a proper figure reported since the first quarter of last year. At that stage it was 5m gross and 12 months on from then it could be nearly double that. I just think that not enough has been done to solve this and to stop costing the taxpayer this huge sum of money."

The Evening News revealed last month that the dispute was being blamed for a 600,000 decline in income from trade waste customers because businesses looked elsewhere when disruption was at its height in the summer of 2009.

Bin men say changes to the way staff are paid through the "equal pay" shake-up could cost them thousands of pounds a year.

Leaders from the Unite trade union have pleaded for the council to give what they consider a fairer deal to its members, but council leaders have refused to back down on their plans to reform despite the continuing industrial action.

Even conciliation experts ACAS - the organisation that helped prevent mass strikes across UK airports when it sealed a deal between BAA and Unite - failed to find a way forward when they were called on in September.In an official council report, director of finance Donald McGougan said: "The gap between forecast (services for communities department) savings of 9.2m and target of 11.5m has risen to 2.3m, mainly as a result of continuing issues with the refuse dispute."

A city council spokesman said: "The savings we are looking to get for the refuse service have been slower than expected but if we do not make the savings in this area they will be made up by other parts of services for communities. We expect to deliver a balanced budget by the end of the year. These savings have no bearing at all on the cost of the dispute."

Stephen MacGregor, convener of the Unite union in Edinburgh, was not available for comment.